US Marine Corps creates attack drone team as arms race with Russia, China heats up
The U.S. Marine Corps established an attack drone team earlier this year to respond to the rapid development of armed first-person view (FPV) drone technology and tactics, offering a glimpse into the evolving landscape of modern warfare and how future battles could be fought.
The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT) will be based at the Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.
The FPV drones used will offer squad-level lethality at a range of up to 20 kilometers, nearly 12.5 miles, for under $5,000, compared to more expensive weapons systems with less capability, according to a press release from the service.
“MCADT is committed to rapidly integrating armed first-person view drones into the FMF [Fleet Marine Force], enhancing small-unit lethality and providing organic capabilities that warfighters currently lack,” said Maj. Alejandro Tavizon, the headquarters company commander at Weapons Training Battalion and officer in charge of MCADT.
“By leveraging emerging technologies and refining drone employment tactics, we are ensuring that Marines remain agile, adaptive, and lethal in the modern battlespace.”
Brett Velicovich, an Army veteran with extensive drone experience, told Fox News Digital that the creation of MCADT has been long overdue as the United States enters a drone arms race with adversaries like China, Russia and Iran.
“For a while now, we haven’t had the needed technology, the needed expertise in low-cost, highly scalable, lethal drone technology that, frankly, is going to be the next part of every piece of the next war that we fight,” he said.
Velicovich argued that the United States is far behind other countries, especially China, when it comes to the production of drone technology, and needs to start looking at drones not just as surveillance assets, but as a form of ammunition.
He pointed to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the large-scale advancements in domestic drone production that have allowed Ukrainian forces to strike multi-million-dollar enemy tanks and vehicles with drones that cost a few hundred dollars.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced in December that Ukraine manufactured over 1.5 million FPV drones in 2024, including reconnaissance, kamikaze and long-range deep-strike drones. Domestically produced drones accounted for 96.2% of all unmanned aerial vehicles used by Ukrainian forces during the year.
“You have companies and manufacturing plants in Ukraine building 100,000 drones per month. One manufacturing plant is building 100,000 of these things per month. That’s real scale. That’s where we need to be,” Velicovich told Fox News Digital.
The WSJ, citing one Department of Defense estimate, reported that the U.S. has the capacity to build up to 100,000 drones a year.
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The number is far below what the United States’ adversaries, such as Russia and China, produce in a year, raising national security concerns.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in late April, said that almost all of the country’s defense enterprises had met their orders in full last year, highlighting Moscow’s efforts to ramp up its war machine.
“Over 1.5 million drones of various types were delivered, with about 4,000 so-called FPV drones equipped with virtual reality control systems supplied to the frontlines daily,” Putin said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin. “I know well, just as many of you here do, that these weapons are still in short supply. We need more of them.”
Chinese technology company DJI is also making significant inroads in drone production, in both U.S. and Asian markets. It touts itself as the world’s leading manufacturer of consumer and commercial drones.
Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the non-partisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the Shenzhen-based company dominates the global drone market, controlling more than 70% of the worldwide market share.
“That’s alarming, because DJI drones are essentially data collectors for Beijing — giving China potential access to sensitive infrastructure imagery, flight patterns, and more. It’s not just a market-share problem — it’s a national security threat,” he said.
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Singleton added that the U.S. doesn’t need to match China drone for drone, but it needs a production floor that’s sustainable, somewhere around a minimum of 250,000 drones per year.
“We are absolutely in a drone arms race with China — and losing isn’t an option. Success will depend on scaling production, protecting sensitive supply chains, and turbocharging innovation,” he said. “It’s not just about building drones — it’s about fielding smarter, cheaper and more resilient swarms faster than Beijing.”
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The U.S. National Drone Association will host the Military Drone Crucible Championship in Florida later this summer, where the Marines and the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment will compete to demonstrate their drone skills and tactics in modern combat.